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Gridcensus

Primghar

Brownfield

Primghar, O'Brien, Iowa · City of Primghar - (IA)

Legacy capacity
1
MW

Primghar is a oil plant in Primghar, O'Brien, Iowa, retired 2022-12-01. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 1 MW of generation, so the grid hookup, transmission rights, and often cooling-water access are already in place — collapsing the speed-to-power timeline versus a greenfield build.

Former use & capacity

Former useoil plant
Site typeretired_plant
Existing capacity1 MW
Retirement date2022-12-01
EIA plant ID#1177

Grid hookup & remediation

Nearest substation0.3 mi
Operator address160 S Hayes, Primghar, IA, 51245
Why this site is datacenter-attractive: a oil plant of this scale leaves behind a high-capacity grid interconnection that a new load can re-use, frequently shaving years off the interconnection queue. Retired-plant sites also tend to be already zoned for heavy industrial use with established road, rail, and water infrastructure.

Site conditions & market — O'Brien County

County-level intelligence for this site's location — the power economics, water, hazard, connectivity, and workforce a developer screens before ever visiting. Assembled from FEMA NRI, BLS QCEW, FCC BDC, USGS water-use, and EIA.

Market & workforce

Total employment (laborshed)5,416
Construction employment236
Land value$13,843/acre
Datacenter tax incentivesales_tax_exemption

Power economics & interconnection

Commercial power rate9.24¢/kWh
Industrial power rate7.52¢/kWh
Load growth (FERC-714)1.2%

Water & cooling

Water stressLow
Public water supply2.3 MGD
Industrial water use1.0 MGD
Cooling degree days900
Mean annual temp48°F

Hazard, flood & connectivity

FEMA risk index30.0 · Relatively Moderate
Fiber providers10 · 96% served

County-level context — address-level utility offerings and flood zoning vary within the county. Confirm site-specific service with the utility and a Phase I ESA.

Nearby brownfield & retired-generation sites

A proximity screen of other retired-plant, contaminated, and EPA-flagged sites near Primghar — the environmental neighborhood, ranked by legacy grid capacity.

SiteFormer useLegacy MWDistanceCleanup status
Lake Parkoil plant128.4 mi—

Derived from GridCensus's retired-generator & EPA brownfield dataset. Not a substitute for an ASTM E1527 Phase I environmental radius report.

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Nearby datacenter candidate sites

Scored candidate sites near Primghar, ranked by DC Readiness.

Candidate sites near Primghar
SiteTypeStateCountyVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
O'BRIENSubstation-AdjacentIAO'Brien County345 kV600 MW2.8 yrs64.2
EC Near Lake ParkGreenfieldIADickinson——1.4 yrs62.1
UNKNOWN138106Substation-AdjacentIAO'Brien County345 kV600 MW2.8 yrs61.9
WISDOMSubstation-AdjacentIAClay County161 kV100 MW2.8 yrs61.2
EC Near PrimgharGreenfieldIAO'Brien——1.4 yrs60.6
EC Near PrimgharGreenfieldIAO'Brien——1.4 yrs60.5
EC Near Lake ParkGreenfieldIADickinson——1.4 yrs60.4
EC Near PrimgharGreenfieldIAO'Brien——1.4 yrs60.4

Nearby internet exchanges

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Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.

Brownfield attributes are derived from EIA retired-generator and EPA public data. Existing capacity reflects the retired plant's historical nameplate, not deliverable interconnection for a new load. Confirm reusable interconnection rights, remediation status, and site availability with the utility, ISO, and current owner.

Go deeper than the public screen

Every site and score for Primghar, Primghar, O'Brien, Iowa is free to browse. Pro adds Watchtower on 25 sites, alerts when new candidate sites, datacenters or interconnection-queue requests appear in your markets, score and capacity history, and CSV export. Enterprise adds team seats, weekly data files for all 147,272 sites, the REST API and an MCP server for AI tools.